Introduction
Overview
What is Ready to Program?
Ready to Program with Java Technology was created in 1998 by Holt Software Associates Inc. It was distributed on a cd with the first edition of the textbook Introduction to Programming in Java by J.N.Patterson Hume and Christine Stephenson (ISBN 0-921598-39-4) for 49.95$. The original HoltSoft website described Ready to Program as "... a full Java development environment designed specifically for education containing everything you need to write Java programs.".
Ready to Program is bundled with hsa (acronym for Holt Software Associates), a Java library containing 9 classes. The most common class is hsa.Console, which allows you to create a resizable graphics window and provides access to several functions for interacting with it.
The complete list of hsa classes:
hsa.Consolehsa.TextConsolehsa.Stdinhsa.Stdouthsa.TextInputFilehsa.TextOutputFilehsa.FatalErrorhsa.Messagehsa.Status
What is this website?
Holt Software Associates Inc. went out of business in January 2008 due to "... the end of Ontario's grade 13, and the subsequent decline in the number of students taking Computer Studies courses ...". HoltSoft then released their proprietary materials as freeware, including Ready to Program with Java Technology version 1.7.1.
Ready to Program has not been maintained since HoltSoft became defunct and the hsa library was last updated on July 18th 2003. This has lead Ready to Program to age significantly. The original documentation is only available through The Wayback Machine and its early 2000s formatting, word choice and navigation make it a nightmare to find the right information.
While this website was based on the original documentation, its goal is to provide highschool students with an accessible and modern place to get Ready to Program’s documentation, all in one place. Created by suffering high schoolers, for suffering high schoolers.